The beginning

I imagine at some point that people might actually wander across my ramblings here. They might be people I know already or complete strangers. Let me start this blog off with a bit of background info.

My name is Jim, I started bicycling again three weeks ago. I sold my car and bought a bike to get back and forth to work on. I have always been overweight, even as a child. I was the chubby kid in school. I used to ride bicycles, before I got my license to drive. I could ride 14-15 miles without too much trouble but I never rode hard enough or often enough to lose any weight really. After my first year of college I got my first job and lost 100 pounds over that summer. I was working in a restaurant with no AC in the kitchen, average temp was 100 degrees. The following year in college was amazingly different. I walked around campus and girls actually looked at me, to be fair they looked at me before but not the way they were looking at me after losing the weight. I took up martial arts and got in even better shape. I started dating for the first time in my life at age 19, I probably could have dated at a younger age but I was shy and had no confidence in myself. I was 19, finally looking good (to myself at least) and suddenly I felt like I could take on the world. I dated....a lot. At one point I think I was dating at least 6 girls at the same time. I was honest about it to all of them, I told them all that I was not looking for anything serious and that I was seeing other girls besides them. Heck three of them were from work so they all knew each other and that the others were going on dates with me as well.

I didn't stay that way for long though, I got serious with one girl and my crazy days were over. I was still doing martial arts though. Then I tore up my left knee. It seems somewhat glamorous to say that I did it in full contact sparring but the reality is I went up for a kick and my knee folded, no one hit me, I just crumpled to the ground. Weak knees run in my family, but then so does obesity. Several of my uncles have had knee and back problems over the years, we are all overweight as well. The specialist that put my knee back together told me to give up martial arts and take up bicycling as that would be less jarring for my joints. I ignored him at the time, I was young, somewhat fit, and somewhat in denial that I needed to keep exercising to maintain that level of fitness.

I got married shortly after I healed up enough to walk without crutches. I also started putting the pounds back on. I could blame marriage but that would be lying to myself. I was lazy and quit exercising. The marriage didn't last, I got depressed about it and put on more weight. I had a son now and sat around most of the day playing video games or going to work. I had dropped out of college to get married of course. Over the years I had a few girlfriends, some serious some not. I kept slowly gaining more weight as the years went by. A few years back I met my wife and remarried.

I met Taj online, through a dating service called Romantic Planet. To say she is fantastic isn't good enough. She has given me back my confidence. She inspires me to be better than I am right now. I want to be better because I want to spend as much time as I can with her, but I still kept gaining weight. Apparently just being happy isn't enough to get healthy.

So here I am, nearly 42 years old (my birthday is coming up in September) and incredibly overweight. My knee creaks when I walk and pops frequently. My back hurts almost all the time. I got on a scale for the first time in a long time this morning. I have been afraid to look at my own weight for years now. I weigh 420 pounds as of this morning. I can't stand up for more than 10 minutes without being in excruciating pain.

I have been bicycling 3-4 miles per day to get back and forth to work for the past two weeks. I need to lose an entire person.